Hairpin



Sept. 6, 1932. K S 1,875,611

HAIBPIN Filed June 20. 1 31 INVENTOR it in place.

5 ing portions. 7 V i It is another object of this 1nvention to a 35 ashair receiving channels.

. released.

Patented Sept. 6, 1932 UNITED STATES JESSE M. JENKINS, OF SUMNlIIT, NEWJERSEY Application filed June 20,

This invention relates to improvements in hairpins and particularly onewhich may be made of a single piece otwire and which is adapted to beinserted into the hair to hold It is one of the objects of thisinvention to provide a hairpin which will be readily -inserted into thehair and will be provided with suitable hump portions which so coactwith the remaining portion of the hairpin that after the hair is securedwithin the hump portions of the pin, the pin will be held againstaccidental dislodgement due to the restricted portions adjacent the hairreceivprovide a hairpin formed from a single piece of wire suitablycrimped and made from a resilient material which is less expensive tomanufacture and which is more conveniently used than devices heretoforeknown;

It is another object of this invention to provide a; single wire hairpinhaving a depending central leg portion which restricts 5 the movement ofthe hairpin except by movement of the resilient prongs whereby thehairpin: is prevented from dropping out.

Another object of this invention is to provide a hairpin With'acentralleg having an enlarged hump portion cooperating-with the sideprongs to act as a hair controlling latch, other parts of the centralleg and side prongs having hump portions coextensive with the humps orcrimps in the side prongs to act Another object of this 1nvention is toprovide a hairpin with a resilient guard portion coextensive with acrimped hump port1on,' which portions are cooperatively formed to securethe hair in appropriate relation and to retain the hair in position.

Another object of this invention is to provide a closed hairpin foradjustably securing the hair, which hairpin is made of a sine gle pieceoffres'ilientmaterial and is provided with -an overlappingcatch tosecure the hair within'thehairpin except when the catch is Furtherobjects and advantages of this invention will appear from thefollowingde- 1931. Serial No; 545,713.

the attached drawing which illustratespreferred forms'of embodimentthereof and in which v 1 g i Figure 1 is a plan view of thepreferredform of construction of thefhairpin.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the hairpin shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a plan view of a slightly modified form of construction ofhairpin also showing the centralprong. Figure 4 is a still furthermodified form of construction showing in dotted lines theopened/construction, and in full .lines the latched position. v

In the prior constructions of hairpins it has been a principal objectiveto provide a construction which'may be readilyinserted v to beremoved.SuchLa'hairpin must be simple in construction and reasonable to man.-

ufacture inorder to make them commercially practical, but thepriorconstructions have failed to meet'these conditions. f

The present construction overcomes the failure of such prior hairpins aswhen the present hairpin is inserted itjwill stay in the insertedposition and -will immediately catch. Thereis no loosening which makesthe hair pin objectionably conspicuous and yet the hairp1n may beconveniently removed when desired. The particular form of embodiment ofthis invention shown in Figure 1 shows a one-piece resilient wirehairpin 10 having a plurality of prongs 10a, 10b, and 10a. The centerprong is also composed of a plurality of members 11 and 12. The outerprong 10a, of the hairpin, which in" the drawing'is substantially doublenormal size is provided with a series of humps or crimps which'aresubstantially deep. These humps or .crimps extend throughthesection13and at-each end develop into straight portions 14 and 15'.The

prong 10a then curves on itself in aloop 16 1 I to form'a parallelportion 17 parallel-to the straight portion 15. The portion 17 extendsinto the inner prong-portion 'll' which is ;;0

' extends more closely adjacent the end hump in the section 13 than anyof the other humps 11 in the center prong 100 extend with re spect tothe humps 13 in the outer prong 10a.

This extension of the hump 18 formsan enlarged chamber 18a back of thehump 18 in such a manner that the amount of hair which maybe retainedwithm the chamber 18a is many times greater than could easily" Passthrough the restricted channel between the hump18 and the outer humporcrimp in the section 13 in the side prong and the, more hair that isinserted or caught in the chamber 7 18a, the greater the ratio ofobstruction to the hair that can pass the hump 18 which thus acts as aneffective barrier to the accidental escape of theihairpin. n

The end of the prong 100 comes to a substantial point and forms theunitary connection between the humps 11 and the humps 12 in therespective portions of the center prong 100. The end of-the centervprong100 forming the joint extends outward only substantially half thedistance of the straight ortion 14 in the upper prong IOaand thus fallsshort of the end of the hairpin 10. v.

The'lower prong 10?) is similarly formed 7 with a straight portion 14L,hump portions'13,

and a second straight portion 15-which loops at 16" int-o a parallelportion 17 forming the part of the inner prong 100; The end hump 18 inthe adjoining portion of the center prong 100 is similarly closer'to thehump 13 than any of the other humps 12in the center prong 10c. Theparallel portions 17 adjacent the loop portions 16 are preferably weldedat 19 in order that the pin. as shown in Figure 2 will be insubstantially one plane and effectively secured to each other.

In operation, the hairpin 10 having. been made of a resilient wirematerial, will be in- 7 sorted in the hair and the side prongs 10a and1'0?) will be resiliently bent about the curved portions 16 withvrespectto the center prong 100. The hair will then be caught between theparallel portionslfi and 17 as well as between the parellel humpportions 11 and 13and 12 and 13. However, due to the closeness of thehumps 18 in the center prong 100 with the humps 13 in the outer prongs10c and 106, the hair will be efi'ectively caught by the hairpin and asthe humps 18 are adjacent the end of the hairpin the hair will notescape but will be effectively caught thus holding the pin in fixedrelation. As the hairpin is inserted it will catch all of the hair in'the closed end of the hairpin and the tortuous channels between theparallel humps and as there are, two separate portions of the hairpin ortwo separate hair receiving channels between thecenter prong and each ofthe side hairpin 20 is made of a sin the back mem prongs, double thenormal amount of hair may be effectively caught by the single pin. Thehair will thus be kept in better condition with fewer pins and the pinswill not tend to loosen or accidentally drop out.

A slightly modified form of construction is shown in Figure 3 in whichthe hairpin 20 is of the same general construction as the hairpin 10 andsimilarly has the side prongs 21 and 22 and the center prong 23. The

g e piece of wire and in order to securely retain the adjacent parallelportions 24 and 25 of the center prong 23 the center prong maybe twistedat 26. Thetwisting 26 is in lieu of the spot weld 19 shown in Figural,and itis to be understood that other arrangements might bemade forholding the parallel portionsof the center prong in juxtaposition. Itis'also to benoted that the end hump in the center prong is simdevice asshown in Figure 1, and when inserted'into the hair, the hair will notslip {out due to the restricted passage betweenthe enlarged hump. Themanufacturing construction is only diflerent although it also providesthe plurality of hair receiving channels-as shown in the firstconstruction.

A further. modified form of construction is shown in Figure 4 in whichthe hairpin 30 is provided with two separate portions31 and 32. Theportion 32 acts as a-backing and being substantially smooth and gentlycurved, more closely adjusts itself to. the head of, the

wearer. The, crimped portion 31 hasaplurality of crimps 33 forming sharpangles with er 32 and providing a plurality of hair receivingcompartments 34 The crimped portion 31 is also provided with a sharplycurved end 35 whichacts as a latch to receive the back portion 32 andsecure the hair in the hair receiving compartments.

This hairpin is similarly inserted in the hair when the back portion 32is unlatched and permitted to. open as, shown along the dotted line.When the hair is received within the compartments34 the back portion 32is latched over the hooked end 35' and the hairpin iseffectivelyprevented from coming out. If an unusually large amount of hair iscaught within the chamber 34' the end portions 31 and 32 may not beparallel at the end of the hairpin but'the'latch portion will slidealong the back portion a sufficient amount to adapt itself to the haircontained." This is duein partto-the resilience ofsthe material and inpart to the. free slid-' ing relation between. the back 32 andfithelatch 35 which permit the members to adjust themselves according to thesupply of hair caught. The latch35 acts-as. asec-uring memher forpreventing the movement of the hair in a manner similar to the enlargedhumps 18 and the substantially straight ends 31 and 32 of the respectiveportions of the hairpin facilitate the insertion of the hairpin into thehair. With such construction the hairpin may thus be easily inserted andretained in the hair and prevented from accidentally dropping out of thehair, although the hairpin may be easily removed when desired.

While I have shown preferred forms of embodiment of my device Iam awarethat other modifications may be made theretoand I therefore desire abroad interpretation of my device within the scope and spirit of thedescription herein and of the claims appended hereinafter. 7'

I claim: a

1. A one-piece resilient Wire hairpin having a plurality of legs, a hairreceiving cham ber between said legs, means to restrict and prevent theremoval of hair from said hairpin, and a hair receiving chamber adjacentsaid restricting means adapted to receive a substantial amount of hair.

2. A one-piece resilient hairpin havin a pair of opposed legs and acenter leg Imetween them, said center leg forming a plurality ofcooperating hair receiving chambers, a portion of said opposed legs andsaid center leg being crimped in substantially parallel relation, saidcenter leg having an enlarged crimped portion extending substantially in7 contact with said opposed legs and forming a restricted channel forthe passage of hair and an enlarged chamber behind the 'restrictedchannel whereby the hairpin is prevented from accidental disengagementfrom the hair.

3. A double chamber hairpin comprising a single piece of resilient wireforming a plurality of separate legs and a center'leg,

a welded portion on said center leg forming an integral hairpin havingplural hair receiving chambers, crimped hair receiving portions in saidhairpin, an venlarged hair receiving chamber adjacent the end of saidhairpin, and an enlarged crimp in said center leg adjacent said enlargedchamber acting as a barrier for the removal of hair from said enlargedchamber.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature to this specification.

' JESSE M. JENKINS.

